Yankees Add To Depth, But There Has To Be More, No?

The Yankees made a move yesterday signing a journeyman infielder to a minor league contract. The move makes sense, but there has to be more, no?

The New York Yankees have signed 30-year-old journeyman infielder, Danny Espinosa, to a minor league contract with an invitation to Spring Training when presumably, he will be in direct competition with Miguel Andujar and Gleyber Torres for the starting job at either second or third base.

More likely though, Espinosa will find himself with a one-way to Scranton/Wilkes Barre and the Triple-A Railriders once the season begins. The first thing, though, is we can’t have any of this.

Danny Espinosa was one of the first position players in camp. His Fu Manchu has also reported. And it is glorious. pic.twitter.com/8K9EwJDQd6

Presumably, Espinosa has gotten the message, and whatever that is on his face will be gone by the time he reports to Tampa, even though the Washington Nationals thought it was the best thing since sliced bread came about.

At this time of the year, it’s all about assembling depth to a team. And for that reason, Brian Cashman can’t be faulted for bringing Espinosa on board as insurance if a Yankees infielder goes down with an injury requiring a player with experience who can step in seamlessly to fill a temporary gap.

But what would real insurance look like if Cashman is not convinced that neither Torres or Andujar are ready to make the big step playing for a championship caliber team like the Yankees?

Writing in the New York Post, Joel Shermancontends the Yankees are still interested in acquiring free agent, Neil Walker as their starting second baseman for the upcoming season.

The trouble is that, according to Ken Rosenthal, writing in The Athletic, the New York Mets are also in the hunt for Walker, who has already had one go-around with Mets. On another level, the real prize of the offseason sits waiting for the Pirates to pull the trigger dealing Josh Harrison to either the Yankees or Mets or another team that meets their price.

But all that escapes the point which is that for once the Yankees seem to be in disarray as to what they are doing with the two holes in their infield. Yesterday, for instance, in a piece written for Elite Sports New York, I posited the strong possibility the Yankees will send Gleyber Torres to Triple-A at the very end of Spring Training so they can “steal” the seventh year (instead of the standard six) of team control over their star pupil.

And God forbid, don’t start up all that talk about Manny Machado again.

It’s good the Yankees are thinking ahead, and yes, signing a player like Espinosa can’t hurt them. But sooner rather than later, Aaron Boone is going to be filling out a lineup card when the Yankees take the field in Toronto on March 29 to begin the 2018 season.

By then, the Yankees better have this thing all figured out. Because if the season were to start today, your guess is as good as mine as to who would hold those two infield spots in the Yankees lineup.